Not in the written but in last-minute verbal agreements made during the summit is a commitment by North Korea to the destruction of a major missile engine testing site. "Very smart, very good negotiator". "I want to hear the details by phone [from Trump]".

"Today we had a historic meeting and chose to leave the past behind", Kim said, speaking through a translator. "The most important, hard part of this security issue is for the U.S. and North Korea to sit down to find a way to resolution via equal talks", Wang said. "We had a historic meeting and made a decision to leave the past behind". Song said his "lifelong dream" is to one day return to a changed North Korea and mount an exhibition to "show [his] fellow citizens [proof of] freedom of expression".

Kim Jong-un went with a plan, gave little and left with plenty: bolstered status and diplomatic leverage, lavish praise from the US president, the promise of an end to US-South Korean military drills - and, surely, a growing confidence that North Korea is doing well at this game. It followed a public greeting, one-on-one meeting, and expanded bilateral meeting.

The declaration added that the two countries "will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula" and an assurance that the "DPRK commits to work towardcomplete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula".

Trump was also optimistic about the progress they achieved, stating, "We are going to take care of a very big and very unsafe problem for the world".

Make no mistake: The challenge ahead is enormous.

In China, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters that the fact that the two leaders "can sit together and have equal talks has important and positive meaning, and is creating a new history". "I'm very open-minded to security agreements and to economic incentives to North Korea". More likely, it would accelerate China's rise, as US-led world order frays and unravels.

Several experts said the meeting had failed to secure any concrete commitments by Pyongyang towards denuclearisation.

Experts find it troubling that Trump has repeatedly invoked the idea of "trust" when it comes to a brutal dictator.

"I really think that Otto is someone who did not die in vain".

In a YouTube video she posted just before the summit, she said the talks need to include more demands for human rights: "All [Trump's] going to be talking about with the North Korean leader is about nuclear talks".